Editing David Koresh (section)

==Raid and siege by federal authorities==
{{Main|Waco siege}}
[[File:Mountcarmelfire04-19-93-n.jpg|thumb|FBI photo of the Mount Carmel Center engulfed in flames on April 19, 1993]]
The Waco siege began on February 28, 1993, when the ATF raided Mount Carmel Center. The ensuing gun battle resulted in the deaths of four ATF agents and six Branch Davidians. Shortly after the initial raid, the FBI [[Hostage Rescue Team]] took command of the federal operation because the FBI has jurisdiction over incidents involving the deaths of federal agents. The negotiating team established contact with Koresh inside the compound. Communication over the next 51 days included telephone exchanges with various FBI negotiators. {{Citation needed|date=August 2023}}

Koresh himself had been seriously injured by gunshot wounds to his wrist and his left side. As the standoff continued, he and his closest male associates negotiated delays so that he could write religious documents, which he said he needed to complete before his surrender. Koresh's conversations with the negotiators were dense and they also included biblical imagery. The FBI negotiators treated the situation as a [[hostage crisis]].{{Citation needed|date=August 2023}}

The siege of the Mount Carmel Center ended on April 19, 1993, when U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno approved recommendations of FBI officials to proceed with a final advance in which the Branch Davidians would be removed from the Mount Carmel Center by force. In an attempt to flush Koresh out of the stronghold, the FBI resorted to pumping [[CS gas]] into the compound with the aid of an [[M728 Combat Engineer Vehicle]], which was equipped with a battering ram.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://libertyunderfire.org/2013/04/remembering-waco-and-the-branch-davidian-church-twenty-years-latter/|title=Remembering Waco and the Branch Davidian Church 20 years later.|date=April 30, 2013|newspaper=Liberty Under Fire|access-date=December 14, 2016}}</ref> In the course of the advance, the Mount Carmel Center caught fire. Barricaded inside the building, 79 Branch Davidians perished in the ensuing blaze; 21 of these victims were children under the age of 16.<ref name="Frontline/PBS">{{cite web| url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/waco/topten.html| title=Frequently Asked Questions about Waco| publisher=Frontline/PBS| access-date=February 27, 2015}}</ref>

Coroner reports showed many Branch Davidians died from single gunshot wounds to the head – Koresh, then 33, was one of them.<ref>{{Harvnb|Samples|de Castro|Abanes|Lyle|1994|pp=15–6}}.</ref> A postmortem on his badly burned remains could not determine whether he died by suicide or was killed.<ref name="Wapo FBI">{{Cite news |title= Koresh's Top Aide Killed Cult Leader, FBI Official Says |url= https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1993/09/05/koreshs-top-aide-killed-cult-leader-fbi-official-says/0a8bedd4-460d-4061-96eb-d527d2832c1b/ |newspaper= The Washington Post |date= September 4, 1993 |access-date= March 17, 2024}}</ref> One FBI official speculated that [[Steve Schneider (Branch Davidian)|Steve Schneider]], Koresh's right-hand man, "probably realized that he was dealing with a fraud" and so shot and killed Koresh before turning the gun on himself.<ref name="Wapo FBI"/> The medical examiner reported 20 people, including five children under the age of 14, had been shot, and a three-year-old had been stabbed in the chest.<ref>{{Cite news |title= Autopsies: Children At Waco Were Shot |url= https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2000/07/14/autopsies-children-at-waco-were-shot/175dafab-59be-4712-a654-561628dcab5a/ |newspaper= The Washington Post |date= July 4, 2000 |access-date= March 17, 2024 }}</ref>